Sunday, December 16, 2007

Caps Start Roadtrip With 2 Points

Brian Pothier's game certainly turned around after a healthy scratch a few games ago. Pothier has become a much more sure puckhandler and ratcheted up his physical play. His power play goal in the third period was the mark that the Capitals were able to hold on to against the Lightning at the St. Pete Times Forum.

The confidence factor is alive and well in the Capitals now that they have 4 wins in the last 5 games. They will need that against the Red Wings Monday night. Quintin Laing and Tomas Fleischmann also scored for the Caps and Alex Ovechkin's point streak comes to an end at 7 games. Ovie was a little off in this game as he missed on a breakaway opportunity and was a -2 on the night. His longest point streak of this season has been 9 games.

Shaone Morrisonn has quietly been shutting top lines down this season. While Mike Green has been getting offensive accolades, Morrisonn has been a defensive monster on the ice. Watching this game I have seen one of his better performances as a Capital yet, and his name is nowhere to be seen on the scoresheet. But every Lightning rust with Shaone on the ice ended with him breaking it up. He was aggressive when he needed to be and had very timely poke checks and more important, he never turned the puck over. While Shaone was a -2 in this game, neither goal was really his fault, and there were times that Morrisonn was able to thwart attacks late in the game to preserve the Caps' lead.

Brent Johnson did okay in net, he let a soft one in on the first goal, but for the most part he look pretty confident in the crease. What might have been the big accomplishment in this game was the fact the Capitals did not look past the Lightning and did not have the Red Wings game to distract their game in Tampa. I think it's easy for a team to be caught looking ahead, but Bruce Boudreau has these guys focused game by game.

About The Thinker

"I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I have... many leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. I... I'm friends with Merlin Olsen, too. He comes over on occasion."